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During the height of last year’s wildfire season, 22 people in the small resort community of Wadin Bay, approximately 30 kilometres north of La Ronge, decided to stay behind when residents were ordered to evacuate as the massive Pisew Fire headed towards their homes.
They stayed, stood watch, and fought to protect the place they call home, and in 2026 became the first Saskatchewan community to receive compensation for fighting a 2025 wildfire from a new government program.
Shaun Bergsveinson, a resident and president of the community’s FireSmart organization, joined The Evan Bray Show with guest host Brent Loucks to discuss the preparation of the people who helped save the community.
Read more:
- No delay to start of school year after Bethlehem high school fire
- Sask. sending fire hose to B.C., warning about human-caused fires at home
- Saskatchewan-born winery owner describes frantic evacuation from B.C. wildfire
Listen to the full interview, or read the transcript below:
The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
BRENT LOUCKS: What were you doing a year ago at this time in Wadin Bay?
SHAUN BERGSVEINSON: Still standing guard after the fire came through on June 2. It was dry all summer long. Just smoky. Hardly a day went by without smoke and just on your toes watching for flare-ups or anything. But it’s better this year.
LOUCKS: How many people stayed in the community? And what was that experience like for you?
BERGSVEINSON: Twenty-two of us locals stayed back, and everybody else that should have evacuated and went south. It was quite the horse show. Friday, Saturday, kind of getting ready, and then Sunday it was getting a little iffy, and then Monday the evacuation was on, we were scrambling.
We had lots of sprinklers in the community helping, and then everybody left that had to leave and we just carried on from there. It was nine days of being on your toes.
LOUCKS: The 22 people that stayed paid for the equipment that you needed to to fight that fire and to keep the fire line intact. What did that total come out to?
BERGSVEINSON: We totalled it up to about $39,000. That was fuel for pumps, food, repairs, stuff we lost with hoses that got burnt, some equipment we needed, trailers to haul water to get outside the community.
We made a cut line, and we had to pay for the rental of a dozer.
LOUCKS: I understand you got a check this week.
BERGSVEINSON: Minister Responsible for the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), Michael Weger; president of SPSA, Marlo Pritchard; Shauna Willis, Community Director for Northern Communities; and Peter Boniface, Northern Air Operations head, came out to Wadin Bay. They brought us a check, and we had a supper and a bit of a get together for a couple hours. It was a great evening.
LOUCKS: Did everybody keep their receipts so they could get compensated?
BERGSVEINSON: As a community we put money in each year, and we’ve always had a little nest egg for this but we definitely cut into that last year and wanted to replace that.
It’s been a fight but it’s shown other communities that it’s not just what SPSA can do for us, but if we can work with them, they can work with us, and we can work together.
LOUCKS: You’re also president of the FireSmart organization for your community. What is that all about and how can people can get their community involved?
BERGSVEINSON: We were the first FireSmart community in Saskatchewan, I like to talk about that.
It’s just spring cleanups, fall cleanups, everybody trying to keep their own yards clean.
When we work as a community, we get upwards of 50 people show up and we collect dead stuff, anything we can clean up, debris, and haul it to a vegetation site about three miles north. .
Keeping things clean is a preventive thing, and it truly works. We proved it in 2015, and we proved it in 2025.
